61: Chapter 61 When Lao Tzu throws a punch, even his shadow has to dodge.

The wind and snow gradually subsided. The broken bridge spanned across the abyss, with greenish-gray powder left behind by the disintegration of the King of Scavengers seeping from the cracks in the bridge's structure.

When Su Shuang tucked the copper coin back into Chen Fan's palm, the warmth of her fingertips still lingered on it. He looked down as the ends of her hair brushed against the back of his hand, like a snowflake tainted with the scent of tea.

"The qingqiu jade is in the North," Su Shuang said, her fingertips lightly brushing the dragon patterns on the copper coin. Her voice was so soft it seemed as if she were afraid of shattering the remaining snow in the wind. "But that path... has long been designated as a hunting zone by 'them'."

As soon as she finished speaking, the hair on the back of Chen Fan's neck suddenly stood on end.

Three white cracks rose on the bridge surface, snaking from the end of the bridge to their feet like a death line measured by an invisible ruler. These marks were identical to the incisions on the body of the old porter who had been purged outside the Newbie Village three months ago.

He suddenly grabbed Su Shuang's wrist and pulled her back. The faint sound of fabric tearing drifted through the wind.

A white figure exploded into existence in the center of the bridge. Judge Bing Qi's white robes flapped loudly in the cold wind. As he pointed his Law Saber diagonally toward the ground, the blade reflected Chen Fan's suddenly constricted pupils.

[Abnormal Player Chen Fan, ID: K-7, triggered Grade 3 Liquidation Protocol. Executor: Judge Bing Qi. Obliteration time limit: Three quarters of an hour.]

The mechanical voice of the system announcement pounded against his eardrums, and Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed.

He remembered hearing veteran players in the tavern three days ago say that Grade 3 Liquidation meant the system was getting serious—the last time a Gold Tier Shield Warrior triggered a Grade 2 Liquidation, he was dismantled into data fragments that scattered across half the city.

When the Black Banner Emissary emerged from the bridge mist, Chen Fan smelled the scent of rotting leaves mixed with rust.

The moment that black banner was thrust into a crack in the bridge, seven ghostly shadows lunged forward, carried by the cold wind. These were unfamiliar faces, but Chen Fan was all too familiar with the Newbie Village wooden tags hanging from their necks. The mole at the corner of one boy's left eye was exactly the same as the young laborer who had been owed wages on the first day Chen Fan entered the construction site.

"They're using the dead as blades!" Su Shuang's nails dug into Chen Fan's palm. With her fox demon bloodline beginning to awaken, a faint red tint appeared at the corners of her eyes. "These are the Remnant Thoughts of erased players; the system is using them as live targets!"

The moment Chen Fan threw his left punch, the red light of [Crit ×2] exploded on his gauntlet.

Two ghostly shadows shattered into points of light like melting wax with a "sizzle." His experience bar shot up by nearly half a segment.

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the system alarm stung his eardrums: [Monitoring intensified. The next critical hit will trigger an additional lock-on.]

Cold sweat slid down the back of his neck and into his collar.

Chen Fan remembered the King of Scavengers saying "a critical hit burns through the sky" before he died. It turned out the system had set a trap for him long ago—every critical hit added another shackle.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the Black Banner Emissary's grinning mouth. The fellow's tongue was greenish-gray, and he was licking his lips. "Brat, how does it feel to be bitten back by your own golden finger?"

When the ghostly chains wrapped around his arms, Chen Fan deliberately relaxed his strength slightly.

The chains made his forearms go numb, but they reminded him of the grit he had when carrying three-hundred-pound cement bags at the construction site just to earn an extra five bucks—it hurt, but he could endure it.

Judge Bing Qi's Law Saber reflected the nine white marks on Chen Fan's forehead. As the blade approached his throat, the Judge's voice sounded like cracking ice: "The tenth mark, a sacrifice to the heavens."

At the critical moment, Chen Fan suddenly remembered the Blood Silk Vine at the bottom of the abyss.

When the King of Scavengers' blade had cut the vine and the ashes drifted into the copper coin, his palm had gone numb for a moment—that wasn't an energy surge, it felt more like someone had stuffed a rag between him and the system.

He gritted his teeth, suppressing the surging red light within his gauntlet. His breathing became heavy, like a trapped beast being strangled by the neck.

Just as the Law Saber cut his skin, Chen Fan's right fist moved.

This punch had no red light, no system notification, and even the sound of the wind was suppressed into the marrow of his bones.

But the moment his fist collided with the Judge's face, the critical hit energy that had been suppressed within him for half a quarter of an hour suddenly erupted—[Hidden Critical Hit ×3]!

The Judge's bronze mask cracked into three pieces with a "clack." Blood mixed with turbulent data sprayed onto Chen Fan's face.

Chen Fan saw the ninth white mark on the Judge's forehead snap in half with a sizzle. The data stream in his pupils became a tangled mess, and even the system announcement lagged.

"...They tampered with our Destiny Charts," a hoarse whisper suddenly drifted from the bridge railing. Chen Fan turned his head and saw a fragment of a greenish-gray remnant soul seeping from a crack in the bridge. "But they can't... they can't change the pain."

It was Gray Tongue.

Chen Fan remembered Su Shuang saying that if erased players had too much obsession, they would turn into "Remnant Thoughts," the thing the system hated most—like a stone stuck in gears.

At this moment, Gray Tongue's face was disintegrating, but the tears at the corners of his eyes were frozen, unable to melt away. "That little judge... when his Destiny Chart was being tampered with, he cried for three days and three nights..."

The Black Banner Emissary's scream interrupted the whisper.

The fellow retreated with his black banner, the incantations on the fabric gradually fading to a grayish-white. "How... how could you possibly evade the announcement!" Su Shuang took a step forward, her finger tapping her own heart as a phantom of a fox tail flickered behind her. "You talk of order? Then let me ask you—who set the rules?"

Chen Fan saw her lips move slightly, and ripples of pale pink appeared in the air.

The system's mechanical judgment voice suddenly lagged for half a second—just half a second. That was enough for him to pull back his arms from the ghostly chains and smash his elbow hard against the black banner's pole.

"Crack!" The black banner broke into two pieces. Green flames surged from the break, and the ghostly shadows let out screams like crying infants, turning to ash in an instant.

Judge Bing Qi retreated while clutching his bleeding face. His Law Saber fell to the ground with a clang, his voice trembling like a broken bellows. "You... you aren't an ordinary player..."

Chen Fan wiped the blood off his face. The copper coin on his gauntlet was so hot it made him hiss.

He bent down to pick up the Law Saber, using its tip to lift the Judge's shattered mask, revealing a young face underneath—it looked exactly like Xiao Lin, the boy who was always bullied back in the Newbie Village.

"Your announcement says you're going to kill me," he said, thrusting the Law Saber into a crack in the bridge, the sound of metal grinding making ears ache. "But it didn't say—when I throw a punch, even shadows have to get out of the way."

The shadows beneath the bridge suddenly moved.

Chen Fan squinted and saw a greenish-gray severed hand retracting into a rock crevice, a half-fragmented system ID badge hanging from its knuckles—it was the mark of a Scavenger.

"Let's go." Su Shuang tugged at his sleeve. Only then did Chen Fan notice a bloodstain on her left arm, likely a scratch from blocking the ghostly shadows earlier.

Beads of blood flowed down her pale skin, dripping onto the bridge planks like a flower struggling to bloom.

At the other end of the broken bridge, the ruined eaves of a temple loomed in the twilight.

Chen Fan tucked Su Shuang's hand into his chest to keep it warm. He could feel the Fragment Map at her heart still burning, like a piece of charcoal that hadn't quite cooled.

The wind blew, carrying the scent of tea. He thought of that always-warm cup of tea in the Teahouse and suddenly felt that it wasn't just the Fragment Map that was burning—so was the copper coin in his palm, the blood in Su Shuang's hand, and this bridge beneath their feet that had been broken time and again.

The echoes of the system announcement still drifted in the wind, but Chen Fan could no longer hear them clearly.

He looked toward the ruined temple, where a faded plaque hung. He could vaguely make out the words "frost moon"—exactly the same as Su Shuang's Teahouse.